Marijuana is currently being decriminalized in legislation. As long as the use of marijuana was illegal, the planting was also illegal. With more states allowing the use of medical marijuana, a medical marijuana growing license is required for commercial growers.
This year, the National Academy of Sciences (NAP) released a report that contains almost 500 pages of recent evidence of the health benefits that could be obtained from cannabis. The studies used legally grown cannabis to maintain even quality of the product testing. Legally growing marijuana requires a medical marijuana growing license. This helps ensure the quality of the leaf and the processing.
What Is Cannabis?
Cannabis is the term that is widely-used to refer to cannabis and marijuana; however the latter is taken from a different section of the plant. There are over 100 chemical compounds in cannabis and they might be beneficial or harmful to the human body.
Clinical Indications
When a person smokes cannabis, the term used to describe the experience is “stoned”. The user is in a euphoric state. The cravings for fatty and sweet foods will also surge. This urge is called the “nibblies”. This experience also impairs the perception and motor skills of the user. When high blood concentrations are reached, the user will start having hallucinations, paranoid thoughts, and panic attacks which completes the whole “trip”.
Purity
Generally, cannabis is recognized as “good shit” or “bad shit”, pertaining to sweeping contamination practice. The contamination is usually from the quality of the soil that might have heavy metals and pesticides despite using methods and tools to prevent these from happening.
There are also instances when substances such as lead or small beads of glasses build up the weight of the harvested product. Purity is important in growing cannabis. Additionally, after medical marijuana was decriminalized, growers were also regulated to ensure that no illegal activities occurred.
Therepeutic Effects
Experts studied the beneficial and risky effects of cannabis by growing cannabis themselves in order to have a control over the quality of the harvest. The growers make use of MSNL seeds. The plants were grown on 3×3 grow tent which helped control the growing environment and conditions. Growing cannabis is relatively easy, that there is a guide to grow weed for dummies.
Here are the therapeutic effects according to recent evidence from various researches:
- Cannabis can be used as a treatment for epilepsy though there are still insufficient evidences that support it.
- Oral cannabis can prevent vomiting and nausea from chemotherapy.
- It decreases the level of pain among patients with chronic pain.
- Improves symptoms of Spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis or MS.
- Better appetite and weight gain among HIV/AIDS patients.
- It is ineffective in curing glaucoma based on limited evidence.
- It can treat Tourette syndrome according to limited evidence.
- In a single trial, cannabis was able to treat post-traumatic disorder.
- Cannabis has positive effects on traumatic brain injury according to limited statistical evidence.
- The evidence that shows cannabis can cure Parkinson’s disease is limited.
- There is very little evidence to the claim that cannabis can improve the symptoms brought by dementia.
- There is insufficient statistical evidence that supports smoking cannabis as the source of heart attack.
- According to limited evidence, cannabis was unable to cure depression.
- There is limited evidence that shows lowered risk of diabetes.
- Although there is insufficient evidence, cannabis can help social anxiety disorders.
- The claim whether cannabis can treat patients with schizophrenia cannot be accepted and contradicted due to insufficient statistical evidence.
- Moderate evidence shows better sleep results for patients with disturbed sleeping pattern.
- Smoking cannabis during pregnancy can decrease the weight of the baby.
- There is limited and statistical evidence on the association of stroke and cannabis.
Cannabis addiction and gateway problems have q broad aspect and it is beyond the scope of this article. These issues are also included in the NAP report.
Cancer
On the issue of cancer, the NAP report emphasizes these findings:
- According to evidence, smoking cannabis does not increase the risk of acquiring any type of cancer such as head cancer, neck cancer or lung cancer among adults.
- Limited evidence shows that smoking cannabis can lead to testicular cancer.
- Insufficient evident shows that smoking cannabis during pregnancy can lead to high risk of cancer among offspring.
Respiratory Disease
In terms of respiratory diseases, the NAP report laid out these evidences:
- Smoking cannabis on a daily basis can lead to phlegm production and chronic cough.
- To lower the risk of phlegm production and chronic cough, quitting cannabis smoking can greatly help.
- There is limited evidence that shows whether smoking cannabis can cause asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.
Conclusion
Based on the evidences above, the idea behind cannabis being a miracle treatment for all medical problems is vague. Though it has lots of medical benefits, it also highlights many failed attempts. However it still has so much more to offer. Additional studies can help solidify the claims about this product. The NAP report is a stepping stone towards achieving greater things in the use of cannabis in the medical field. There are still many hindrances towards researching the entire capacity of what this drug can do. After thorough studies, the benefits and risks that we have today about this product will be resolved. However, it will take time for the researches, follow up studies and peer reviews. With the help from experts and acceptance from the people, the hindrance will soon fall and cannabis will be recognized as a breakthrough in the medical field. In the meantime, let us do our best to inform ourselves about the benefits of this product.
